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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27949601">Solstice Shenanigans</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SatiricalDraperies/pseuds/SatiricalDraperies'>SatiricalDraperies</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Hobbit - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Cultural Differences, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Holidays, Interspecies Relationship(s), M/M, Winter Solstice</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 10:14:54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,443</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27949601</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SatiricalDraperies/pseuds/SatiricalDraperies</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Oh no! A unexpected blizzard has arrived, trapping the royal families of Erebor and Mirkwood in Dale for the winter solstice. How shall they ever get on?</p><p>(Spoilers: they get on very well)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bard the Bowman/Thranduil, Kíli (Tolkien)/Tauriel (Hobbit Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Have A Happy Hobbit Holiday 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Solstice Shenanigans</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/likethenight/gifts">likethenight</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I’ll see you in the spring,” Thranduil promises. He leans down from his elk towards Bard and—</p><p>“The snow’s too deep to leave,” Thorin interrupts. “And the lake’s completely frozen over, as well.”</p><p>Bard can practically feel the rage coming off of Thranduil in waves. He decides to intervene before he has to physically hold Thranduil back from hurting Thorin.</p><p>“Well, then you’ll all just have to stay until the next thaw,” Bard says. “There’s plenty of room for everyone.”</p><hr/><p>“What are you making?” Tilda asks. She likes having the dwarves around. Even if she’s still the smallest one, it’s nice to have people closer to her level. Plus, it means she doesn’t need a step stool to peer over into the bowl that Fili is mixing ingredients into.</p><p>“Sufganiyot,” he says.</p><p>“Fried doughnuts,” Kili adds, when Tilda tilts her head at the unfamiliar word. “Tauriel’s never had any.”</p><p>“Apparently I’m missing out,” she says. She reaches up to take a seed of nutmeg down from Bard’s shelf of spices and hands it to Kili, who proceeds to ground it up with a mortar and pestle before passing the spice to Fili to mix into the rest of the mixture.</p><p>“Can I help?” Tilda asks.</p><p>“Absolutely!” Kili says.</p><p>“The more the merrier,” Tauriel adds.</p><p>“Can you pour in the wet ingredients as I mix?” Fili asks. He nods towards a bowl and Tilda picks it up, happy to be helping. Especially when she’ll get doughnuts at the end!</p><hr/><p>“Do you not make snowmen in Erebor?” Sigrid asks. Normally Thorin intimidates her a bit, being King under the Mountain and all, but he’s much more approachable standing in the snow looking frazzled at all of the snowmen standing guard around Laketown.</p><p>“No,” he says. “We tend to stay inside during the deep snows.”</p><p>“You’re missing out!” Sigrid says. “Come, let’s make some.”</p><p>She shows him how to shape a small ball of snow between his mittens, then starts rolling it around the snow covering the frozen canal.</p><p>“That really works?” he asks, raising an eyebrow. “Won’t the snow be compacted smaller?”</p><p>“Not if you have the right kind of snow,” she explains. “This is nice and sticky, so as long as you don’t press down too hard, it’ll build up big enough to make the base.”</p><p>“Hmm,” he grunts, but starts rolling his snowball alongside her.</p><hr/><p>“What is this for?” Legolas asks Bain. He’s found an old wooden sled, long enough for two people to sit comfortably, with surprisingly not rusted metal runners and thick woolen ropes in front.</p><p>“Sledding,” Bain says. “We used to build up mounds of snow behind the houses at the edge of town and climb up onto the roofs to sled down the hills we had made. If the lake was especially icy, you could get halfway across before stopping! Of course, Da and the other adults hated it, but no one ever got really hurt. The past few years there hasn’t been enough snow to build a really good hill, but we might be able to get one going this year, if you want to try.”</p><p>“Why not?” Legolas says. “Let’s go sledding.”</p><hr/><p>Bard can’t stop smiling. Sure, trade might be out for a few days until people can start moving through the snow again, and there might be a few more dwarves and elves camping out in his house than normal, but he wouldn’t trade this for anything.</p><p>“You look pleased with yourself,” Thranduil remarks. He’s ostensibly figuring out the best blend of spices to add to this winter’s batch of mulled wine, but Bard doubts he’s been doing much brewing from his position on the armchair by the fire.</p><p>“Why shouldn’t I be?” Bard asks. “As inconvenient as this blizzard may have been for you, I couldn’t ask for better timing.”</p><p>“This has been anything but inconvenient,” Thranduil says, holding his hand out to Bard, who takes it and curls up next to him in the oversized chair.</p><p>“Do you celebrate the solstice in Mirkwood?”</p><p>“In our own way,” Thranduil says. “We have lots of choirs and solemnity. Nothing quite as… vibrant as you do here.”</p><p>Bard chuckles. “This particular solstice season has been rather more exciting than most, with all of our guests. I’m glad you’re all here, even if it does mean more cooking and cleaning. The kids certainly seem to be enjoying themselves.”</p><p>“We all are.”</p><hr/><p>“Are they ready yet?”</p><p>“The dough has to rise,” Kili explains. “It’ll take at least half an hour more.”</p><p>“These better be worth it!”</p><p>“Believe me, they will be,” Fili assures Tilda.</p><p>“What about you, Tauriel? Do elves have special winter salad?” Kili teases.</p><p>“We do eat things beside salad,” she laughs. “But there aren’t many special winter foods in Mirkwood.”</p><p>“Then how do you celebrate?” Tilda asks.</p><p>“We sing, mostly, and tell stories. For us, winter is a time to reflect on the past.”</p><p>“Can you sing for us?” Tilda asks.</p><p>“Oh I don’t know—”</p><p>“Please do,” Kili urges. “If you feel comfortable, that is.”</p><p>“Alright,” she says. “Here goes!”</p><hr/><p>“Do you think it’s too icy?” Bain gingerly steps out onto the lake, testing his footing. Usually there’s more snow covering the ice, but for whatever reason this section of the lake is bare.</p><p>Legolas has no such qualms. He confidently walks out onto the lake, sure as anything, and promptly slips and falls on his backside.</p><p>Bain can’t help himself. He bursts out laughing.</p><hr/><p>“There!” Sigrid says proudly as she helps Thorin mold the snow into a thick beard. “A snow-dwarf!”</p><p>“Hmm,” Thorin grunts as he takes a step back to look at his masterpiece. “Well, it’s faster to sculpt than stone.”</p><p>Sigrid laughs. “That’s definitely one benefit. Do you think we could make a snow-elf as well, or do you suppose they’re too tall and spindly for the snow to stand up?”</p><p>“We could try,” Thorin says, a glint of mischief in his eyes. “Though I’m not sure how we could recreate that flowing hair.”</p><p>“Or the excessively sparkly robes!”</p><hr/><p>The sufganiyot have finally risen (Tilda is surprised at how quickly the time has passed, between singing all sorts of folk songs and preparing the filling) and they’re ready to be fried. </p><p>“Looks like it’s up to you and me,” Fili says as Kili and Tauriel are busy painting jam across each other’s faces.</p><p>“Frying donuts can’t be that hard,” Tilda brags. “I help Da and Sigrid salt meat and cook vegetables all the time.”</p><p>“A pro chef!” Fili exclaims. He still handles all of the burning hot oil himself.</p><hr/><p>“Faster!” Bain yells. He whoops and hollers as Legolas pushes the sled along the rooftops, occasionally jumping across the canal to the buildings on the other side. “There’s our house!”</p><p>“With Sigrid and Thorin outside,” Legolas points out. “Shall we surprise them?”</p><p>“Absolutely!”</p><p>They glide over a few more rooftops before Legolas yells at Bain to “Hold on!” and jumps on to the back end of the sled. Bain grips the sides of the wooden sleds until he can’t feel his fingers anymore, although that might just be due to the extreme cold weather. He and Legolas reach the end of the roof right across from Bain’s home and it feels like it sprouts wings to fly through the air. </p><p>The sled, of course, does not actually have wings, and so it starts falling faster and faster down towards Sigrid and Thorin standing in the snow.</p><p>“Watch out!” Bain cries.</p><p>The two of them turn and instinctively dive out of the way. Their snowmen are not so lucky. Thorin glares at Bain and Legolas as they pull themselves out of the wreckage, completely covered with snow.</p><p>“Sorry,” Legolas offers weakly, but Thorin doesn’t back down.</p><p>“Well,” he says, finally cracking a smile. “At least now we know what a snow elf would look like.”</p><hr/><p>Bard hums contentedly as he looks around the crowded room. Bain and Sigrid are shoving the rapidly melting snow down each other’s shirts while Legolas doesn’t seem to notice the cold at all, looking happy eating his donut even as snowflakes dust his eyelashes and eyebrows. Fili and Tilda have become quite the pair as she prattles on to him about all of the different berries she’s found growing around Laketown. Tauriel and Kili have cornered Thorin in conversation over some mulled wine, but even the usually stoic dwarf seems to have relaxed far from the duties of kingship.</p><p>“It’s nice, isn’t it?”</p><p>“Only one thing could make it better.”</p><p>“And what’s that?”</p><p>“This,” Bard says, turning around to face Thranduil and finally, <i>finally</i>, pull him down into a kiss.</p>
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